


Wish That You Were Here

by ofeliasghost



Category: Scream (TV)
Genre: F/F, braudrey - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 07:50:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11504928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofeliasghost/pseuds/ofeliasghost
Summary: NOTES: Anything canon after season two of Scream is not included. This is time line and canon divergent. There are MANY mentions and allusions to other pieces of literature and horror films so if you get even a few of them congrats. Be aware there will be spelling and grammar errors.SUMMARY:Inspired by Florence + the Machine’s Wish That You Were Here.Audrey comes home to Lakewood after a fourteen year period serving Special Forces. There she has to resolve the demons she thought she buried years ago in her violent military history and realizes her definition of home could be blonde hair and brown eyes.(braudrey. no rating. warnings for graphic/triggering etc content.)





	Wish That You Were Here

Audrey turned the key over in her fingers. She felt the weight of her dog tags slide towards her on the chain. “Here’s your coffee ma'am.” The woman blinked and remembered where she was.

“Uhm, t-thanks. Sorry.” Putting the heavy chain down, she stared at the cup in silence. The diner’s red neon sign washed in through the dirty window casting Audrey a pale pink. She glanced at her green beret sitting on top of a pile of unopened letters. She had never written back, but the letters had never stopped coming even if they had slowed in volume. Nearly every single one was from Brooke Maddox.

She let her icy eyes fall on the Christmas card sitting on table as she touched the old house key sitting among the dog tags around her neck. Flipping the post card over one last time, she read Brooke’s near immaculate hand writing.

**[WISH THAT YOU WERE HERE.]**

Audrey took in a deep breath as put it down, writing first. It had been very easily at least a decade since she had set foot in Lakewood. She hardly ever breathed her home town’s name out loud in fear of it catching up to her.

_“Audrey?” Sheriff Acosta’s voice sounded tight over the telephone. “Did I get a ticket again?” she half joked as she wiped the candy counter down. “I’m sorry for this news.” The teenager stopped a moment as she stared at a scratch on the bright red counter top. Audrey scratched at an itch in her throat that never seemed to go away. “Your dad was hit by a drunk driver off highway 45.” Audrey tried to swallow the itch down. It became a tickle that would turn into a hiccup of a sob._

She squeezed her eyes shut to prevent the tears that still burned as if she had heard the news only yesterday. Joining the special forces had never been part of her own agenda. Hell, her agenda had been to get back into film making. The idea had been a footnote given to her by her Dad. She recalled him laughingly mentioning it while they were making pancakes one morning.

_His eyes were starting to regain a little bit of their light. Her mother had passed only four years before. Audrey was in eighth grade and Emma sat across the table. They were playing footsie and laughing while stuffing their gross pimply faces with pancakes. She could barely hear him talking on the phone with Uncle Mike. He was laughing about her newborn baby cousin, Thomasin. “Our girls are tough, I’m sure Audrey or Thomasin is gonna carry on the Jensen military legacy.”_

At the time Audrey would huff and roll her eyes at her father's suggestion. She hadn’t gone home since the funeral. She had thought about chucking the house key in Wren lake, but she didn’t have the guts. Her rough fingers hesitantly reached for the pile. She was almost afraid of what they would say. Tearing open the second most recent letter. A few pictures fell out, they were of Emma and a tiny little baby. Turning them open carefully, she read the note on the back.

**[Emma & Eisley].**

She picked up the letter for answers.

**[Hey its me again. Just keeping you updated on stuff. Emma had her first baby. Her name is Eisley and she’s the cutest. Her eyes look a lot like yours. She’s so lucky to have colored eyes since her dad has brown eyes. Emma was scared she was gonna look more like her dad, but she’s a good 50/50. Love ya, hope to hear/see you soon]**

It took Audrey hours to sort through the letters backwards. Emma had met some guy in med school. Noah was a big time crime writer – Brooke was kind enough to include his debut Vanity Fair article about the Texas Debutante killer. She had to laugh about the irony about it all. She touched these items as she read to make their lives more real to her again. Stavo and Brooke had divorced amicably and according to Blondie he was doing pretty well with his foot in the animation department. He was working with Konami for a new generation of horror gaming.

She touched her split lip which was a reminder of what she had accomplished in her own time away from them. Audrey had polished her steel and sharpened her edges. She had channeled her grief and anger into power and bloodshed. Picking up the letters, she filed them into her duffel bag’s side pocket. Putting a dollar bill under her untouched coffee cup, she slowly moved out of the diner’s booth. Her wary eyes flicked around carefully to take in the people around her. In her nearly twelve hour seating, the diner had acquired a new set of hard asses. Most of them were from the near by base and Audrey made her way to the restroom with her green beret in hand. The bathroom resembled one she would find at a shitty seven eleven. 

Dropping her bag on the floor she took a look at herself in the mirror. She had retained some of her baby face, something she was thankful for. Her blue eyes had gotten paler with age. Maybe it had something to do with extended periods of staring into flood lights. There was a shadow of a black eye around her left eye. Her jaw clicked when her mouth parted to observe the split in her lip.

Shrugging out of her uniform carefully, Audrey noted had more freckles on her bare shoulders probably from sun exposure. She passed a finger over old bullet wounds on her right arm before her eyes averted with some guilt from the hard slice on her left arm that served as a reminder of her guilt. Some scars were uglier than others. The brunette pulled her white tank top over her head quickly to pull on a loose fitting charcoal colored tee. Her shoulder still ached from tearing her rotary cuff.

Shucking her uniform pants off, she pulled the metal belt from it to lace it through her black jeans and sighed at the new space. Her clothing was cold and at least a few years old. Her jeans were worn at the knees and if she had been a few years younger she would have thought it stylish. She put her arms into her trusty leather jacket before carefully pulling her long brunette hair over it’s collar. She made a note to cut it when she got the chance.

The dog tags clinked as she finished dressing and she put her uniform back into her duffle bag in a neatly folded and now empty corner. She lugged the green bag over her shoulder as she pushed her way out of the restroom.

“Bye ma’am! Happy holidays!”

Audrey cast a glance at the waitress and for a moment she didn’t know what to say as she went out the door, “–T-thanks.”. The cold air hit her and her breath fanned out into the air in cool white clouds. Making her way to her beaten red jeep she threw the duffel into the back seat. The vehicle wasn’t warm, but she had spent time in places colder than hell in less clothes. Tying her hair back in a low knot, she turned on the GPS to set it.

CURRENT LOCATION - BARROW, ALASKA

SET DESTINATION - LAKEWOOD, LOUISIANA

She gave a white puff as she plugged the key in the ignition and sparked up a cigarette. It was a bad habit she had picked up when she was alone. She let the jeep’s engine warm up before cranking up the heat. The windows fogged and she looked at the gold watch on her right wrist. It was her mother’s, a gift from her dad before she had passed from cancer. The piece was delicately detailed and it reminded her that her parents were finally together somewhere other then on her face.

Looking at the watch made her feel as if a hundred years had passed since she was eighteen. Covering it up with the leather jacket, she wiped away a spot on the passenger’s window to see the mirror. Her limbs were starting to feel heavy. Rolling her head back against the jeep’s headrest, she debated if she was really going to go home on such a shit impulse.

“Fuck it.”

Audrey glanced at the rear view mirror as she pulled out of the parking lot and made her way down to the first high way. For the next five days, she spent her time seeing things she had missed and stopping at scenic routes to take short videos and quick pictures before coming across a beauty salon.

She put down her camera. She was only about thirty minutes from home and suddenly, she didn’t like the idea of parting with her long locks just yet. Audrey had changed too much to go back to who she was. Entering against her best instinct, the brunette was greeted by a bored looking stylist, “Hi, how can I help you?”

“Uh yeah, I’d like to get a hair cut? Maybe some color?” She had dyed it once a long time ago, a glossy blue black and she was offered an array of books and color samples. Determined not to be overwhelmed, she chose out a short crop that would sit just below her chin and a glossy black color. The process took longer then she had expected and Audrey was starting to feel the nerves when the excess was being washed away.

She closed her pale eyes to avoid looking at herself in the mirror until it was all done. Audrey had to laugh at the stylist’s commentary. “You kinda look like Kate Beckinsale– what was that movie?” She shrugged, she was laughing too hard at her own reflection to remember as the cape came off. The shorter crop made her feel a little lighter. Not bothering to hear a price, she shelled out two hundred and made her way out. “Happy holidays,” the stylist stated through a sigh before the door closed behind Audrey.

She slid on her sunglasses as she ran a hand through her wet black hair and stared up at the sun with a grimace. She looked back down at her watch. With every step, her dog tags felt heavier and the key seemed to be the heaviest weight on her chain. Climbing back into the jeep with a groan, she sat in the driver’s seat.

The rear view mirror declared Louisana’s temperature at a nice solid 60.

She didn’t have anymore excuses between her and Lakewood. “Fuck –” she hissed under her breath as she turned onto the highway to speed down 45. Out of the corner of her eye she caught her Dad’s worn old cross with fresh flowers. It wasn’t like he was fucking buried there and she made a sharp u-turn to take a good look at the fresh flowers before peeling out.

She stared at her GPS as she navigated the town’s streets. She recognized various things here and there, but it had changed so much Audrey almost felt lost. Who the hell in their right mind had sunk so much money into Lakewood? She spied a street sign **[Quinn Maddox Memorial]**. It was a grisly reminder of why she wanted to leave Lakewood.

She raked her calloused finger through her hair as she drove slowly to see what had changed. Maggie had sold her house to be closer to Emma and Eisley from the looks of it. Unfamiliar faces played in the front yard with their children and grandchildren. Audrey found herself driving by Noah’s house to see his dad and mom pleasantly still settled in their house. She passed her house without a blink and sighed as she tried to ignore the weight of the key around her neck.

She found herself navigating to the familiar address on one of the letters. It was Stavo’s old house. When Sheriff Acosta had been fired, he had been relocated and Brooke had followed, initially as her letter depicted and she had come back after the divorce. It was hard to imagine the Maddox princess living so humbly in the old Acosta house. Bringing her jeep to a stop across the street, she stuck her head out the window as she put a cigarette in between her lips.

‘Stalker alert,’ she thought to herself as she put the lighter to the menthol and exhaled it’s poison into the cool Louisiana air. Setting her head back into the jeep, she let her head rest as she watched the house and finished off her cigarette. Lakewood still smelled like Wren Lake, stagnant and mossy, and she took in a deep breath of the cool sweet water air.

She peered at the bright red envelope sitting in her passenger seat. Taking it in her hands again, she passed her thumb over the date. It was the most recent and the only dated for the current year aside from the Christmas card. She passed her fingers over the glossy picture of Emma and Eisley before sticking it in her in her sun visor like they were going to look over her and hopefully keep her safe, mainly from herself.

She glanced at the gold watch. Slowly she moved to unclasp it. An angry red scar stared back at her. She closed her eyes a minute and even with all her anxiety she couldn’t ward off the tiredness she felt to her core.

When she slept, she never dreamed and if she did, she never remembered what she had dreamt about even when the feeling of fear remained. If there was anything she hated most in the world, it was the feeling of being powerless.

_The knife slashed at her arm. The burning red pain of it had her gasping as Piper stepped back._

She could hear Piper’s laugh ringing in her ears still to this day. 

_“What the fuck, Piper! That’s not funny! I was scared you were gonna kill me!” She hissed this low and under her voice as she clutched her arm to try to keep the small rivets of blood from running down her pale arm_

_“Audrey live a little, geeze,” Piper stated as she flipped her long brown hair much like Emma did when she didn’t really think about it. It made Audrey think of a shampoo commercial. “What the fuck are you doing with the mask? And dressed like that! There’s a real killer on the – loose— ” Her words were starting to die in her throat._

_She could see Piper’s visible irritation and also the gaff of a mocking laugh, “Yeah, I fucking know, Audrey.” The slow pronunciation of her name brought chills to her spine. The cold knowledge of suddenly putting everything together set in and Audrey felt the itch in her throat she hated so much. “Y-y-you lied to me–?”_

_She hated the shrill sound of her voice as it turned to anger, “You bitch!” The teen froze when she heard shouting. Her first instinct was to protect anyone else from harm and her head shot to the left. When she turned back, Piper was gone._

She would never be fully rid of the guilt. She would always carry it with her like the key around her neck. She ran her fingers over her chain as she forced her eyes to glance at her watch.

It was almost nine and the sky was dark.

She took in a deep breath through her nose and the cool air had turned sharp in her lungs. Louisiana had always been less industrial then the east and west coast. That was probably why the gulf had always been her favorite. She wiped at her tired pale eyes and glanced at the house. Her tongue swiped out to taste the scab on her lip as she debated staying the night at the Crescent Palms hotel.

Did the place even exist still? The question suddenly seemed more realistic when she realized that her house had been unoccupied for a few years. She leaned over to turn on the GPS and the headlights of an oncoming car blinded her. Audrey put her arm up to shield her eyes from the light.

A hard knock on the jeep’s metal jolted her nearly out of her seat.

“Audrey?”

Brooke had changed so much since she had last seen her, yet not at all. She still had the biggest, saddest eyes she had ever seen. Like someone had really gone and broken her heart. Audrey opened her mouth to say something. The Maddox princess was as pristine as ever, dressed in white like an angel with the head lights of the car illuminating her from behind. Without thinking she reached out to touch the birth mark on Brooke’s cheek.

“I-I I thought I was never going to see you again.”

She pushed open the jeep door slowly and Brooke made her way around to meet Audrey half way. The blonde in her arms was a little more filled out then she had remembered and she smelled a little more like sandalwood than vanilla, but she made no arguments against the pleasant scents. She felt Brooke squeeze her back harder and Audrey felt lighter then she had in a long time.


End file.
